One thing many people may not know about me is that I come from a family of professional photographers. We even had a darkroom attached to our garage growing up and there was always a multitude of camera pieces and parts laying around the house.  It was my twin sister who ended up catching the photography bug. She worked side by side with my dad in the dark room, studied it in college and now has her own successful Ophthalmic photography business! I have an aunt, a niece and a nephew who all work in the biz in some way shape or form, as well!

Over the years, my sister has accumulated her own amalgamation of fancy cameras but I’ve just never been able to bring myself to figure them out. I even purchased and tried a nice point and shoot but it just never seemed to do what I needed or wanted it to do! It might be patience thing. User error probably factors in with the point and shoot but who has the time or patience to read all those pesky instructions!

I’m a big fan of Apple products for a one reason – they just work! And they work with each other without having to think too much and if there is one less thing I have to think about in my life, I’m sold! So, when I heard that the new iPhone was going to have a significant upgrade to it’s camera, I was thrilled!  Thanks to the iPhone, I’ve been able to channel my “inner photographer” and, thanks to iCloud, all of my photos are magically saved and stored!

One of my long term goals of blogging is to eventually invest in a “real” camera but for now, I’m pretty excited with this phone/camera and I thought I would share some pictures from around my garden, as well as, some before and afters from my old iPhone 5s. Plus, since my blog is all about the lessons I’ve learned along the way, here is what I’ve learned…

• for now, I like how simple and easy using my iPhone is for taking pictures for my blog. It’s always on me, it syncs automatically to my mac,  and, for now, it’s doing almost everything I need and want it to do! (anyone want to buy a slightly used Nikon point and shoot? LOL)
• I use my camera and take a picture of the tags when I’m at a nursery when I see a plant I have that I know I’ve lost the tag. I save that pic in a folder in my computer for reference.
• resources like Plant Lust and Xera’s Plant Catalogue are invaluable resources for researching names of plants when you’ve lost the tags!
• you can’t beat a real camera for a wide shot..sad face.

But, what the iPhone lacks for wide shots, it makes up for in simple, easy, beautiful close ups!

For fellow iPhone photographers, you know that certain colors can be very problematic. In fact, I gave up on trying to capture anything red or white.

It’s has been a pain in the butt to capture the true color of this hibiscus but I feel like the iPhone 7 has done the best job yet!

Now it looks as good as it smells!

My old iPhone 5s seemed to have the most trouble with white…as you can see here, the iPhone 7 does a pretty great job.

Maybe it was the light, but this picture below represents a common issue I had with the iPhone camera that still happened with my new one.

Below are some “before and afters” from an early September “photo shoot” with the iPhone 5s and then from a week ago with my new iPhone 7.

Is is weird that this aquilegia is blooming so prolifically again in the fall?

This Salvia Amistad is one of the best examples of the improvements to the camera!

Same with this Caryopteris incana “Xera’s Darkest Blue”. I am CRAZY for the color here!

The above is one of the most dramatic shots. What I’ve been most impressed about the new camera is how it corrects the light. Now THIS is an accurate reflection of one my very favorite specimens in my garden. In the first picture, it appears much darker that it actually is.

I’m a sucker for a coreopsis. But, if I had to pick a favorite, this one would be it.  It’s hard to believe looking at both photos that they are the same plant. Finally, I was able to capture the true color of this little gem.

This next set is insane….

It almost doesn’t even look real!

Again, what a difference in light and color adjustment!

Before, I would have never been able to take this picture in the middle of the afternoon with such bright light. FYI, I cut this back to the ground after it’s first incarnation…you may remember “Ursula”…what a nice surprise to have it come back for a second time!

The next are some “up close and personal” shots that kinda blew me away!

I think I like this more as it fades away!

Overall, I’m very happy with the performance of the iPhone 7 camera. In no way shape of form, is this meant to be a technology review. If you knew me, you’d be rolling on the floor! What this it is meant to be is another chapter in my journey of gardening. From the moment I bought this house, I’ve taken as many pictures as possible. I can assure you that there was never any intention of putting the pictures to use other than reminiscence and reflection. But, as I started gardening, and beautiful things started happening, I couldn’t help but want to capture them in as realistic a way possible.

I feel like I’ve made a significant move towards that goal.